Your Independent Grocer

HORRIBLE COSTUMER SERVICE, that says it all.
They make price mistakes all the time and never ever aknowledge them, arguing that prices displayed are already expired and telling you that YOU, dear costumer, after having dealt with your own busy day, you should be the one doing the job they’re paid for, double-​checking the tags.
Coming back?
NO WAY.

This place doesn’t cease to amaze. Always a horrendous experience even for one item purchase
…down to shoppers I go.

This supermarket is the worst! Its super expensive, the staff either don’t speak English that well (1 guy doesn’t speak english at all, im not being racist at all, i just think if 1 cant speak english they shouldn’t be working in customer service around food were a breakdown in communication could effect allergies)
2 stars is fair only because:
Rekha — a lovely stand out staff member who makes me smile every day.
$ 3 deal in the deli is a really good deal.

This grocery store really sucks.
Convenience, is the name of the game here, and the only reason I ever visit this grocery store is my laziness and not wanting to take the extra time to go down to No Frills.
I remember when this store actually had low prices, before the buy out screwed everything up, now it’s just another over priced grocery store in a down town core already filled with over priced grocery stores. You are in an area where there are many renters, and you gouge them every time they walk in. Its embarrassing that this place charges this much and when I’m there I openly laugh at prices and walk away from items I would’ve normally bought.
The customer service is better at Porto-​Potties. I once bought flowers (which I will never do again) for my girlfriend there. Once my flowers were put to the side, not wrapped of course because why would they offer services that every other store will do, anyway once I paid I wasn’t even given time to put my debit card back in my pocket before they started serving the customer beside me, while putting groceries on top of my flowers. What the bloody hell are they doing? This cashier then had the balls to say sorry to the person NEXT to me for me getting in THEIR way.
They seem to hire only foreigners, which would explain why the service sucks so hard.
They even broke my grocery cart. I brought an old lady cart with me because being a west ender, and a renter, I don’t use a car and I use an old lady cart. The bagger (who was foreign, of course) over loaded it so much she broke the legs off of it, of course all this happened while I wasn’t looking so when I got it home, and tried to let go of the handle so I could unload it, it fell over and broke a jar, sick, thanks guys. She didn’t have the balls to tell me she broke it when I was there.
I hate this place, as I said, convenience is the name of the game here, and until you price me out (which is gonna happen very soon if the increases keep occurring), I will keep coming back, mainly because I am lazy and love battered wife syndrome, and love getting treated like garbage.
For shame.

I liked this store. It doesn’t have the biggest range in some items and also seems to not have a variety of sizes (for instance I could only buy 100 tea bags and not say 30 or a large cake instead of a smaller one) but it had everything I needed. Everything was also very fresh (bakery, deli) which was nice. The staff at checkout and packing were friendly as well. I agree with others though that the price of some things was steep so do keep that in mind.

The location is very convenient, the quality is not that great in the meat section and it’s pricey, I prefer to walk more and go to IGA.

A bit over priced considering it is a part of president’s choice but it is convenient. I think they should consider lowering the prices for the sake of the community. The staff are always kind and helpful.

This is my first choice for grocery stores. I enjoy the prices here as they are quite reasonable. They’re open late as well which is always a plus. They have a wide selection of fruits, vegetables, meats as well organic choices. There are long lines at the check out but that’s because this place is very popular because it’s so good.

I have shopped here many times and found it to be satisfactory. The reason I rate it 1 star is that I visited one evening at about 10 minutes to closing time and I had a terrible experience. As I tried to enter there were many shopping carts in way and I had to wait until someone removed them — with the explanation that they were closing soon. Sure… so then I have to walk past customer service and I asked when they closed and they said in 7 minutes. I quickly gathered my few items and headed to the checkout to experience the most incredulous act of customer service I’ve ever experienced. My boyfriend and I had just come from a formal party and didn’t have our usual purses and wallet on us, so upon checkout we realized that we didn’t have a credit card and that we
had a lot less cash than the bill on our persons. We were embarrassed and were scrambling to find enough cash to pay the bill when the cashier (I think his name was Richard) said «we’d like to go home» in a nasty tone — to which I responded that I had been in customer service a long time and that is not a valid response. He then said that we were to leave and could not pay for any items. As we were leaving we asked his name and he would not it give it to us — he said to ask the manager which we did as we were leaving and we were a bit distraught but we’re hoping we have the name «Richard» correct. I couldn’t believe someone would be so rude and dismissive! This man needs to be held accountable for his actions. I’ve been in customer service for 15 years and have never treated someone that way. It’s appalling and I hope it is addressed.

Another Loblows grocery store in disguise. They’re open late which is appreciated, however, I love how they try to make this place a home feel even though it is like every other massive grocery store chain in the city. At least they carry PC brand and everything is easy to navigate through.

One word, expensive
They seem to be raising the prices every few months
Soon I’ll be paying $ 10 dollars for a jug of lactose free milk
I would never buy seafood here. once I was tempted. but then came to my senses
Sure, it’s convenient, but not the best shopping experience. and the check outs leave a lot to be desired

May 1, 2014 5pm
I just had a leg injury and went in to stock up on food while I recovered. I had to hobble around the store to get around. Saw that the frozen dinners were on sale so I got more than my basket could hold. Further down the aisle, an empty cart with wheels was next to the male employee stocking ice cream. I asked to borrow the cart. To this, the employee answered, «we have many carts in the store.». «can’t you see I am working?» I was aghast at the poor customer service!
The employee clearly had no care for me as a customer. I headed for the checkout rather than shop more, end my shopping right there and then. I resolve to shop here only for emergencies.

Great because it’s open late, but things here go way too fast and don’t get restocked often enough.
Plus some of their prices are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of line
$ 11 for a basic pack of Tassimo Coffee pods? Give me a break, I could go to shoppers and get it for half the price.
They have an overpriced deli section with pre-​made items like pasta and chicken dishes, but they aren’t worth it considering you could get higher quality items for the same price if not less, at Nesters Market.
(though if you wait long enough, they mark them down very late at night, it’s hit or miss though)
on the plus side, they have an awesome selection of pre-​made fruit/​salad packs for lunch, a bit pricey but well-​made.
Don’t expect much variety here, just bare bones in terms of selection on items. Most if not all of the clearance items are gone right away (they’ll have like 5 of one item, put it on the shelf and it’s gone, clearance my ass)
I don’t like paying for bags either, but they do actually bag your grocery for you here, which is a pretty nice touch considering Superstore cashiers or No Frills cashiers just chuck the bags at you as if they’re telling you to go die somewhere.
Parking is a bit crappy, there’s street parking which is almost always full, and there’s also an adjacent lot, but it’s worse than street parking.
Overall it’s acceptable but it’s not outstanding. They need to reduce their prices, because some items put even Safeway to shame.

I really like this store.
First off, being a night owl, the fact they are open until 3 am 7 days a week really impresses me .
They have large selection of many items and its a bigger store then most.
They have a large brightly lit produce section. As well as a Deli and bakery.
They also have many isles filled with all of the basics — pretty much everything anyone may need.
Did I sat I was a big fan? Yes I most certainly Am !
Fresh veggies, decent selection.
They usually have some sort of clearance items — yesterday I got Oxyclean multi purpose stain remover spray for .59 cents a bottle! .
They also have customer appreciation days where you can save even more!
I especially love the freeze pops! A pack of 24 is only 99 cents !!

Are you single? Hate it when bananas get all brown and ikky, so you just want to get 3 or 4 at a time? Well you better resign yourself to buying conventionally farmed ones at this store.
Today, I was informed that the organic banana bunches are not to be split up.
… even though they are sold by weight
… and it’s totally okay to do it to the conventional bananas
???
I honestly do like this store (they don’t jack up prices on many items like some of the other big name guys do here in Vancouver), but come on — please don’t penalize those of us that want to buy organic, but can’t finish an entire bunch of bananas!

Well I read all of the reviews before posting my own — wow some people are so negative — even mentioning communism? FYI this is a franchise and the owner is there every day.
I live in the area and was sick of both Safeway and IGA — what I was looking for was one stop shopping with overall competitve pricing, fresh produce and meat, my cigarettes, the Globe and Mail, good variety, good service, good management (equals good customer service), clean, good hours, well stocked…
The final lock down on all my grocery business came today when I had a pricing issue. I expected a battle (I expected one because customer service in Canada is S**T) instead I met the owner who was pleasant, friendly and resolved the issue immediately.
PS. To Mr. Magoo who could only find bananas and apples in the fruit section check Unilocal for local eye examinations :)

Waited to write a review of this place to see if it would deteriorate after the first month of being open. That hasn’t happened so far. This store is a
huge upgrade from the old Super Valu that used to be here, for those that remember that sad, pathetic and overpriced establishment. This new store is bright, has stock and isn’t being serviced by useless zombies who clearly don’t want to be there.
Prices are largely reasonable, but certain things can be found for better deals elsewhere. I guess that is true of most grocery stores though. The meat is of decent quality and the produce is fresh & attractive. They carry a lot of the PC items just like Superstore. Location is convenient for me as well.

It’s now October 2013. I continue to step in to buy shitty junk food on sale if I’m walking by. About all this place is good for.
Every once in a while someone still blocks the emerg exits (today it’s a garbage can «partially» blocking). Now that a file is opened on them at City Hall, it’s easy peasy to call in to Fire Safety/​Inspections.
Further to my review of 1÷20÷2013, this store continues to block the emergency exit. Clearly nobody there has ever had to leave a building on fire in a hurry. Their continued disregard for customer safety for their own convenience is gonna get them a lot more attention from the City and on social media, to be sure.

Good morning Greg,
TL;DR: Great selection of fruits, vegetables and organic product. Good prices.
What happened to this place??? (I mean that in the most positive way) They must have a new buyer, changed suppliers or changed owners since their opening. A really good friend of mine got a job here right before they opened. He had told me the prices were great and that they had a good selection. But I was disappointed when I tried it. It seemed they only had apples and oranges when it came to fruits, and a scarce selection of vegetables. Their prices were similar to everywhere else and frankly it looked like a close cousin to the No Frills on Denman. After a few tries, I gave up.
BUT…
This is a good example of a place that went from «zero to hero» in my books. I had to cook a Rwandan dish on Victoria day for a potluck I was organizing at work. The recipe called for green plantains and after spending half a day on the phone calling every grocery store in the city, the lady at The Independent told me they had them. Every other place either didn’t have them or only had the ripe ones. So I went, expecting the worse. When I walked in I was immediately taken aback by the variety of their produce. I got my plantains and did all my groceries there. A whole week worth of groceries (with other things that keep) comprised mostly of organic products and the whole bill was below 70 $. I spent almost an hour in there comparing prices to all the other places I grocery shop and this place definitely lives up to my original expectations.
A great surprise indeed

The service is fine, the place is open when I need it, and I like the chicken wings.
Fine in my books!
*A mini rant*
Okay everyone!
First off, Communism and a Grocery store have nothing to do with each other.
One is an almost-​extinct form of Politics, the other is a store which people buy food.
Then again, the people using this argument are the same people who come into my workplace at 3 AM looking for their shoes they’ve somehow lost. These people shouldn’t be left alone and shouldn’t be reproducing. Seriously people. Get your stupid spoiled Vancouverite heads around the fact that the West End is the most densely populated area in Canada and stores run out of things!
You’ve got one person complaining that there isn’t enough staff to stock shelves, and another stupid Unilocaler complaining that there’s too many staff members in an aisle stocking shelves!
This, my friends, is Vancouver in a nutshell.